Stripe CEO Patrick Collison's advice to young ambitious people: go deep, read a lot, make things
benaratame · x · 2026-10-18
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison's advice to young ambitious people:
- Go deep on things, become an expert, and aim to read a lot.
- Work hard to the extent you enjoy it — under that constraint, returns to effort may never substantially diminish.
- Make friends online with people great at what you're interested in; the internet is your generation's biggest advantage.
- Make things — operating amid uncertainty is a very different experience from learning.
- Find vivid success examples; if you want to be a great scientist, spend time with good scientists in person.
- Great work is often done surprisingly young: "They were gray-haired when they became famous… not when they did the work. So, hurry up!"
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